[dazmond]

Grippa obviously the way to go. I’m saving up!
Anyone got an idea of the weekly or monthly running cost?

just slap it on(or part of it) on an interest free credit card mate......

diesel costs for heating my water every day?......£80 a month roughly....i used to put £40 a month into my van,now its £120 so £20 a week on average.

...i only work 5 or 6 hours a day 4 or 5 days a week though and use the heater on full blast all year round.....

[combat1]

Good man Daz, thanks for that.
About the same running costs as my immersion but Grippa is so much better.
Need to get a decent van to bung it into as well!
Shouldnt be bothered at my age but its like fishing ‘ you always want the best’
Really glad all is good for you mate,
Come Feb/ March you are going to be so cosy.

[DeLuce]

Yeah, I’d say £15-20 pr week is about right for me too. I work  4days about 7-8 hrs a day.
Heater on full with another pump trickling  into the tank for when customers talk to me or in between jobs, so heater doesn’t shut down.

[dazmond]

Good man Daz, thanks for that.
About the same running costs as my immersion but Grippa is so much better.
Need to get a decent van to bung it into as well!
Shouldnt be bothered at my age but its like fishing ‘ you always want the best’
Really glad all is good for you mate,
Come Feb/ March you are going to be so cosy.

yeh no point having these diesel heaters installed into an old van pal,its a long term investment thing(10+ years)...oh another thing make sure you buy a new van with a heated drivers seat!helps dry you off at lunchtime on cold rainy days(like today!)

[p1w1]

How loud are these heaters when firing up during the night

[dazmond]

How loud are these heaters when firing up during the night

not mega loud....... they only fire up on really cold nights for 10 mins at a time....the sound is reassuring!

i love the sound of them.......

[Jonny 87]

Imagine a jumbo jet firing up.

It’s only like.....half as loud.

 

[p1w1]

genuine questions...so lets say i was to get one  , what sort of temp would you have the water at for days that are roughly 0 - 3 degrees , and what sort of temperature drop is there with say 30m of hose out.  And can they keep a steady temperature with a high flow rate and does it help keep your hands warm while using the pole 

[dazmond]

if your working on a very cold day with a lot of hose off the reel the water at brush end will be warm but not hot(25c-30c) even with the heater on full blast as the hose will lose half its heat with 100m off...just as well really or you ll increase the risk of thermal shock on some glass...

with just 30m off itll still be hot(around 40c-45c)....with hardly any hose off(say 10m)then itll be 60c at the jets!

in the summer it can be 65c at the jets on a warm day and thats with plenty of hose off the reel!

yes...the pole warms up as well as the hose...

theres no such thing as a steady temperature of water out of the jets...it will vary depending on the above,ambient air temperature and the original temperature of the water in the tank to start with.......

this is my findings after using my diesel heater for nearly a year now(one pump,no second one recirculating constantly back to tank)

[Jonny 87]

Only had mine for about 3 weeks now, but my temperatures are a bit higher than daz. I think it’s because I have mine set up with a second pump constantly recirculating hot water back into the tank.

I can now adjust from Luke warm to scalding hot. Even when I’ve got 100 metres of hose off the reel and about 3 degrees outside, I can get 60 plus degrees at the brush head. (Great for plastics and conservatory roofs but too hot for glass)

I just make sure I keep checking the temp (with my hand) every so often and tweak the heater as necessary.

I’m Realising now that although thermal shock can happen, it’s very rare, and if a window is fitted properly it should be fine. I’m a lot less worried now. Worse case scenario that I break a window I will pay the £60-80 for a glazier to fix it. Not the end of the world.

What I would say though....if you are a one man band, then the 5kw will be plenty if you just want it for general window cleaning. You’ll have nice hot water no matter what the conditions.

I got the 9kw because there are sometimes two of us out, and I wanted the option to have really really hot for plastic cleans and facias etc.

For general window cleaning I never run my 9kw on full heat.

I run pump 2 (that’s recycling hot water back to the tank) on full heat, and the pump on my side on about half heat. This gives me 50 degrees at the brush head with about 30-50 metres of hose off the reel which I find is the standard amount for me, and is so warm that it’s uncomfortable to keep your hand under the jets for more than 10 seconds.

If I was cleaning delicate glass, I would turn my side right down and it would be just warm.

The plus side for me running my set up like this, is that at about 1 or 2 pm I power down the heater because I’ve got 55 degree water in my tank. That’s enough to give nice hot water for the rest of the working day.

Once you get used to how these heaters work you will love them.

I was cleaning a big residential care home yesterday which is nearly all traditional, (windows turn in and get cleaned along with the insides) and the last hour and a half is WFP pole work. Usually that last hour as horrible because you’ve been in the warm all day, and then you have to go out in the freezing cold. ( it was 3 degrees here hesterday)

Yesterday it was awesome. Warm pole, warm hands, windows were so easy to clean, even the ones next to trees and bushes which for the past 8 weeks had been getting battered by  a few storms.

I’m enjoying windowc cleaning again.

  🔥

[dazmond]

mines hot enough for me.....just be careful jonny with having a second pump recirculating back to the tank on a cold day....if your getting 50c-60c at the jets when its 3c outside your asking for trouble on glass IMO........

its 3c here this morning and my first job of the day is booked in for 930am.its a large house so ill have 70m or so off the reel.brush end itll be around 40c and even at that temperature the glass will look like its on fire!

[dazmond]

i dont touch the temperature dial...it stays on full all year round.....oliver at grippa told me its the best way to run these heaters.....

[Jonny 87]

i dont touch the temperature dial...it stays on full all year round.....oliver at grippa told me its the best way to run these heaters.....

I had a similar chat, but he explained what the temperature gauge does, all it does is alter the ratio of coolant to water in the heat exchanger. It has no negative effects on the heater running it cooler. Only negative is that your heater might go into shutdown mode more often as the coolant will get hotter quicker. For me though using the second pump recirculating gets rid of that issue.

[Jonny 87]

mines hot enough for me.....just be careful jonny with having a second pump recirculating back to the tank on a cold day....if your getting 50c-60c at the jets when its 3c outside your asking for trouble on glass IMO........

its 3c here this morning and my first job of the day is booked in for 930am.its a large house so ill have 70m or so off the reel.brush end itll be around 40c and even at that temperature the glass will look like its on fire!

I only have 50 degrees at the brush head max, that’s all I think You need, any more than that on glass and I think it’s unnecessary to be honest.

When temperatures are low I can tweak the valve and have a constant 30 degrees at the brush head. That’s fine for me In the winter.

I can just vary it as I feel fit though.

I reckon if I ran my heater on max I’d be getting 70 degrees out of it easlily. Way too hot.

[dazmond]

mines hot enough for me.....just be careful jonny with having a second pump recirculating back to the tank on a cold day....if your getting 50c-60c at the jets when its 3c outside your asking for trouble on glass IMO........

its 3c here this morning and my first job of the day is booked in for 930am.its a large house so ill have 70m or so off the reel.brush end itll be around 40c and even at that temperature the glass will look like its on fire!

I only have 50 degrees at the brush head max, that’s all I think You need, any more than that on glass and I think it’s unnecessary to be honest.

When temperatures are low I can tweak the valve and have a constant 30 degrees at the brush head. That’s fine for me In the winter.

I can just vary it as I feel fit though.

I reckon if I ran my heater on max I’d be getting 70 degrees out of it easlily. Way too hot.

in summer youll get 60c-65c at brush end on a warm day.....its great for cleaning at these temperatures jonny,the pollen,fly spots,bird muck,snail trails,etc  just melt off virtually straight away and the windows dry super quick....

[Jonny 87]

mines hot enough for me.....just be careful jonny with having a second pump recirculating back to the tank on a cold day....if your getting 50c-60c at the jets when its 3c outside your asking for trouble on glass IMO........

its 3c here this morning and my first job of the day is booked in for 930am.its a large house so ill have 70m or so off the reel.brush end itll be around 40c and even at that temperature the glass will look like its on fire!

I only have 50 degrees at the brush head max, that’s all I think You need, any more than that on glass and I think it’s unnecessary to be honest.

When temperatures are low I can tweak the valve and have a constant 30 degrees at the brush head. That’s fine for me In the winter.

I can just vary it as I feel fit though.

I reckon if I ran my heater on max I’d be getting 70 degrees out of it easlily. Way too hot.

in summer youll get 60c-65c at brush end on a warm day.....its great for cleaning at these temperatures jonny,the pollen,fly spots,bird muck,snail trails,etc  just melt off virtually straight away and the windows dry super quick....

I’ve been using those temps mate. Can easily get that now if I turn the dial up. 

I just find 50 the same. In summer I will crank it up though. Currently on minimum I’m getting 40 degrees at the brush head. It’s 4 degrees here.

[NWH]

Impossible for me to use mine flat out hot on some of my jobs I’d be cracking left right and centre.

[KS Cleaning]

mines hot enough for me.....just be careful jonny with having a second pump recirculating back to the tank on a cold day....if your getting 50c-60c at the jets when its 3c outside your asking for trouble on glass IMO........

its 3c here this morning and my first job of the day is booked in for 930am.its a large house so ill have 70m or so off the reel.brush end itll be around 40c and even at that temperature the glass will look like its on fire!

I only have 50 degrees at the brush head max, that’s all I think You need, any more than that on glass and I think it’s unnecessary to be honest.

When temperatures are low I can tweak the valve and have a constant 30 degrees at the brush head. That’s fine for me In the winter.

I can just vary it as I feel fit though.

I reckon if I ran my heater on max I’d be getting 70 degrees out of it easlily. Way too hot.

in summer youll get 60c-65c at brush end on a warm day.....its great for cleaning at these temperatures jonny,the pollen,fly spots,bird muck,snail trails,etc  just melt off virtually straight away and the windows dry super quick....

If you don’t mind me asking Daz, and this isn’t a question regarding the safety of gas heaters, what temp were you getting at the brush head with your gas heater? Just you said when you ripped it out that it didn’t have any real cleaning benefits and you were no quicker.  I’m failing to understand how your diesel heated hot water  gives you all these benefits  you mention, yet your gas heated hot water made no difference.

[NWH]

When I had an L5 heater it was boiling hot.

[dazmond]

mines hot enough for me.....just be careful jonny with having a second pump recirculating back to the tank on a cold day....if your getting 50c-60c at the jets when its 3c outside your asking for trouble on glass IMO........

its 3c here this morning and my first job of the day is booked in for 930am.its a large house so ill have 70m or so off the reel.brush end itll be around 40c and even at that temperature the glass will look like its on fire!

I only have 50 degrees at the brush head max, that’s all I think You need, any more than that on glass and I think it’s unnecessary to be honest.

When temperatures are low I can tweak the valve and have a constant 30 degrees at the brush head. That’s fine for me In the winter.

I can just vary it as I feel fit though.

I reckon if I ran my heater on max I’d be getting 70 degrees out of it easlily. Way too hot.

in summer youll get 60c-65c at brush end on a warm day.....its great for cleaning at these temperatures jonny,the pollen,fly spots,bird muck,snail trails,etc  just melt off virtually straight away and the windows dry super quick....

If you don’t mind me asking Daz, and this isn’t a question regarding the safety of gas heaters, what temp were you getting at the brush head with your gas heater? Just you said when you ripped it out that it didn’t have any real cleaning benefits and you were no quicker.  I’m failing to understand how your diesel heated hot water  gives you all these benefits  you mention, yet your gas heated hot water made no difference.

the problem was the gas heaters(L5/L10)were unreliable,i had endless problems with back pressure,burst hoses,calibration problems,changing gas bottles was a faff,flame going out on a windy day lots of times,running out of gas on that filthy first clean or add on job,forgetting to drain heater on a cold night and breaking it...

i would get 40c at brush head when it was working properly but the extra faffing about negated any time saved....

with the diesel heater i just press a button and away i go...thats it!

NO changing gas bottles!
NO flame going out on a windy day!
NO back pressure problems or calibration issues
NO explosions!
NO need to remember to put an oil filled radiator in the back of my van on freezing nights
NO need to remember to drain the heater down either....